Unspeakable Employment
by Kyle Senior
Summary: The Unspeakables have found that not only is Harry prophesied to kill Voldemort, he has a soulmate as well. They decide that Dumbledore has done a poor job preparing Harry and by extension Ginny for their destiny and employ them as Unspeakables. HP/GW, soul bond, soulbond, grey!harry, ends-justify-the-means!Dumbledore, slight Molly and Ron bashing. Rating may go up
1. Chapter 1 - The Department of Mysteries

**I saw someone else attempt this idea a few days back and their story quickly degraded into super powerful Harry and Ginny, hopefully I'll avoid that.**

**I don't like Ron or Molly that much as characters. Ron is lazy and shallow, his jealousy is ridiculous. Molly is overbearing as fuck and annoys me to no end**

* * *

Unspeakable Employment

Chapter One:

The Department of Mysteries

Ginny had gone to bed at the burrow, only to wake in a darkened room with walls clad in roughly hewn black obsidian on every surface. She was seated at a table, facing a person shrouded in a grey cloak; she could not make out a face under it, in front of the hooded individual were a folder and an unusual black quill. Seeing as she was awake the cloaked figure began talking before Ginny could panic.

"Welcome Ms Weasley, I am Unspeakable Athena" said the feminine voice from the grey cloak. "I have a proposition for you. Certain events have happened that make us, the Department of Mysteries, uneasy, and we feel that we must offer to train you."

Ginny was slightly confused for a few seconds before the words 'Unspeakable' and 'Department of Mysteries' kicked in.

"W-w-why? Why would the Unspeakable be interested in me?" she sputtered out. "I'm only nine, aren't I a bit young for this?"

The Unspeakable inclined her head slightly and nodded before answering.

"You are young, there is no denying that, something that has made me and some of the others uncomfortable," she paused. "However, the need to train you is too great.

I should start at the beginning; have you ever heard of the Book of Bonds?"

Ginny thought, remembering where she had heard those words before.

"It's a fairy-tale, isn't it? A young witch searched for a book that would tell her who her destined soul mate is, only to find the path gave her the answers and she never found it?" said Ginny to which Athena slowly nodded.

"That is what most people think of the Book, a myth, a fairy-tale. However, this Department has a habit of finding fairy-tales or creating them," she said with a tone that made Ginny think she was smirking under that grey cloak. "The Book of Bonds is very real; it is in this very building. Most new Unspeakables have the urge to take a peek."

Ginny blushed slightly at the confirmation. Why bring it up if she didn't have something to do with it? What name was she paired with in the book?

"Now, to put it succinctly; you are in the book, your bond mate is only a year older than you and he lives here in the UK, so he'll almost certainly be attending Hogwarts. Now, this is cute and all but it really isn't worth the Department's time, we have very important things to be doing and given the nature of soul bonds and you're similar ages you'll seek each other out in such a cramped environment, having never really needed our assistance. However, your bond mate has his name on a very important prophecy known to us. So important we've taken the unusual step of deciding to recruit him at the tender age of ten and start training him to overcome it. Now if we were to ignore your bond then we might have a problem, depending on the level of the bond you could be in as much danger as him as his bond mate but lack the training to defend yourself, or might have full access to the knowledge of our Department over the bond making you a security risk not only in knowledge of the Department but dangerous magic's you have no experience or practice in."

Ginny was reeling slightly at all this information. She had a potential soul mate out there, a soul mate she would most likely bond with, but he was in incredible danger, which put her in danger, made her his weak spot, and Ginny Weasley didn't like being weak.

"So what will I be doing?" asked Ginny.

"A lot of things: The intention is to train you and your future bondmate for the Operations Group here in the Department, the other groups being Research Group – what the public thinks when they hear 'Unspeakable' who research strange and new magics, and Field Group – who go into the field looking for potentially dangerous magical artefacts and knowledge," she explained.

"Operations conducts espionage and combat operations, usually against Dark Wizards though occasionally they – or to say, we – conduct operations to preserve the Statute of Secrecy. Despite the common misconception we don't work for the Ministry, we answer to InterDoM or the International Department of Mysteries who answers to the International Confederation of Wizards. That doesn't preclude us work for the Ministry though, many of us have 'public' jobs at the ministry. I know most of us in Operations work as Aurors or Hitwizards, or used to anyway."

"You want me as a spy or a soldier of something?" responded Ginny nervously.

"Initially, it will be espionage or 'spy' work; the intention being to gather intelligence from multiple sources once you're attending Hogwarts. Unfortunately however, a war is coming, and the nature of the prophecy, combined with your name in the Book of Bonds means you _will_ be dragged into it," said Athena before continuing. "We will teach you the skills needed to survive. Initially it will be espionage skills – basic wards, eavesdropping, moving covertly, stealth and tracking – along with lots of magical and military theory, then, when your magical core is strong enough you will move on to practical defensive and combat magic."

Ginny groaned. "So to put it bluntly; my life will soon be in danger and you're willing to train me and my bondmate? What's in it for you?"

Athena chuckled slightly. "Well, ignoring the fact it's the right thing to do, a war would threaten the statue of secrecy."

"You haven't told me who or what this threat is though," questioned Ginny.

"Ah, yes," replied Athena. "To cut to the chase, Voldemort isn't dead."

Ginny gasped slightly at Athena's casual use of _his_ name and opened her moth to speak before Athena cut in.

"Better get used to it Ms Weasley, if you accept this offer you'll be gasping every two minutes during briefings and lessons as practically no one in the department calls him 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.' But, to answer the question you were going to ask after commenting on me using his name: there was no body the night he supposedly died, we have reports that he still exists as a bodiless wraith hiding in the remote forests of Albania, we have evidence that something for the last nine years has been possessing and killing small animals in said forests _and_ the prophecy is still in play – when a prophecy sphere stored in the Department is fulfilled it turns black," Athena sighed before continuing as Ginny paled. "I know it's not pleasant but we need to act. The prophecy basically says the only one who can kill Voldemort is your bondmate. If we let both of you go through Hogwarts like normal students he'll have returned at wiped out most of the country before you're trained well enough."

Athena turned the folder in front of her around so it was face the right way up for Ginny seated opposite and pushed it forward.

"Inside the folder are the standard Unspeakable loyalty and secrecy contracts. They are magically binding with built in clauses that stop you front slipping up and casually mentioning secret information. Deliberately breaking the contract will automatically punish you by either squibing you or killing you depending on the nature of the information disclosed. It includes exemptions for the disclosure of _some_ secrets to outside parties if there is a genuine _operational_ reason for it. This contract is _very_ unforgiving and subsequently signing it is a very serious matter. Do not do so lightly."

Ginny knew what magical contracts entailed and if the Unspeakable said it was lethal to oathbreakers then then it really was lethal to oathbreakers.

"Does this force me into anything? Once I sign do I have to continue working for you? What happens if I refuse?" asked Ginny.

"It's good to see you have a smart head on your body, Ms Weasley, many people your age would not ask such questions," responded Athena before answering. "The contract does not force you to work for us, it does however give us the right to wipe your memories if you leave us; we usually do not do that though, most Unspeakables who retire end up coming back to us once they realise normal life is too boring for them. We also need to easily recall and reactivate retired Unspeakables during times of trouble, say the return of Voldemort. The power to wipe memories is usually used for people we have been forced to fire or people who quit at the training stage or very early in their career.

If you don't sign the contract I will try to convince you to reconsider but if that fails then you will be thoroughly _obliviated_ and wake up tomorrow morning in your bed with no recollection of this meeting."

Ginny bit her lip and began thinking carefully about everything she had been told tonight before picking up the black quill accompanying the contract.

"Oh," said Athena. "Just watch out, that's a blood quill, it might sting a little."

At that, Ginny realised one last very important question.

"One last question, why haven't you named the person is next to my name in the Book of Bonds?" she asked.

Athena gave a very short single laugh before answering.

"It was decided early on by my superiors that we would avoid naming him," she answered humorously. "We decided you would most likely be distracted by the revelation if we named him and thus wouldn't be able to concentrate on the serious discussion at hand."

Ginny couldn't think of many names that would do that, she hardly knew anyone her own age let alone and _boys_. Though the fact her perfect boy was being named might have been a distraction.

"Who?" asked Ginny nervously, but hoping to find out.

If Athena wasn't wearing a grey cloak right now then Ginny would have seen her smirk.

"Why, none other than _Harry Potter_!"

Ginny made an 'eep' noise and immediately flushed bright red.

o0o0o0o

Harry Potter opened his eyes and realised he was still wearing his slightly broken glasses for some reason; he could have sworn he took them off before going to bed. Suddenly it dawned on him that he was no longer in his cupboard under the stairs and was instead seated upright in a roughly hewn obsidian clad room, facing a table where an imposing figure in a grey hooded robe was seated, face obscured.

"Mr Potter," the robed figure spoke in a strong masculine voice. "It is good to finally meet you. I assure you that you are in no danger here. I merely wish to conduct an interview with you. My name is Unspeakable Nova; I work for the Department of Mysteries, specifically the British branch. We have been observing you carefully for several months now and what we have seen disturbs us."

Harry was slightly concerned at the wording, where they going to label him a freak too? Did his freakishness disturb them? Harry frowned slightly and shifted lower into his char to which Nova sighed.

"I assume you Mr Potter that _you_ are not what disturbs us, rather it's your quite frankly disgusting relatives," assured the hooded man named Nova. "Going by these surveillance logs I can say with a lot of certainty that your relatives are the real _freaks_ here."

Nova said 'freak' with particular venom, before continuing.

"If I could I would have beaten you uncle senseless and taken you to a much better family to look after you , but Albus Too-Many-Middle-Names Dumbledore would have used his considerable reach to stop us, risking the Department."

Harry filed away the name 'Dumbledore' for further thought; seemingly _he _was responsible for his atrocious upbringing. Harry knew that is was far from normal to be treated like he was by his relatives but it was hard to deny being a freak after being called that or _boy_ for nine years straight.

"Now Mr Potter, before we begin proper I need to ask you a few question to fill in the blanks we have on your file. It seems your relatives discourage the asking of questions so we have no idea what you know about yourself and your parents," stated Nova.

"I was told my parents were killed drunk behind the wheel of a car…" trailed Harry without any certainty.

"Hmm," he said. "That answers my first question. It seems the predictions by the surveillance teams were right."

Nova leaned back into his seat and pondered this for half a minute.

"Ok, here's how I'm going to approach this; I want you to assume everything your relatives have told you about yourself and your parents is a lie," said Nova to which Harry nodded. "The only things that are true is that Petunia is your mothers sister and therefore your aunt, the larger whale is your uncle and the smaller whale is your cousin."

Harry sniggered slightly at the description and would have seen Nova smirk slightly if he had his hood down.

"Now I want you to think over your life and remember any strange and unusual occurrences, things that seemed impossible or didn't make much sense but you remember happening."

Harry frowned slightly and pondered. Now that he thought about it he could think of several very strange occurrences that resulted in him being locked in the cupboard under the stairs. With more thought he realised that every time he had an extended sting in the cupboard it was precluded with a strange occurrence.

"I can remember quite a few actually," responded Harry to which Nova motioned to explain them. "Well, the first that really comes to mind was my first year teacher's hair turning blue. I remember the teacher sided with my cousin over an _incident_ because she believed the stories from my relatives that I was a troublemaker. Then there was the time I was being chased by my cousin's gang and somehow ended up on the roof of the school."

"Yes, yes," replied Nova. "Those sound about right.

Now, your parents; they weren't killed in a car crash, your aunt lied. They were murdered on Halloween of 1981 by a man who called himself Lord Voldemort, and, he was a wizard."

Harry blinked at that, waiting for the punchline.

"I assure you this is no joke Mr Potter," said Nova before Harry could say something about that being impossible. With that he withdrew his wand and pointed it at the table. "_Facerea nihilo!_"

Suddenly a red china tea set appeared from thin air. Not waiting for Harry's look of shock to disappear he explained.

"Mr Potter, magic truly is real. I am a wizard, the man who murdered your parents was a wizard, you mother was a witch, your father a wizard and finally _you _are a wizard. All of those strange occurrences you were involved in were accidental magic; something perfectly normal and experienced by nearly every young witch and wizard in their formative years."

Harry was rather shocked at this revelation but with the strange occurrences that regularly happened around him he quickly began to accept it.

"Can you show me some more?" he asked before adding. "_Please?"_

"Certainly," replied Nova. "I'll give you a quick rundown but I can't take too long, I have much to discuss with you."

Unspeakable Nova started by turning the tea set into a roughly carved wooden horse, then he flicked his want and it animated, galloping around the table. It then jumped off and moved towards the wall where Nova sent a red light towards it, blasting the horse to bits.

"I just demonstrated a rather broad range of spell work there," he explained. "The first thing you saw me do earlier was _conjuration_, the creation of objects from nothing, conjured objects eventually fade back into nothingness. Then you saw me _transfigure_ the tea set into a wooden toy horse, I then _charmed _it to gallop around the table where it jumped off and headed towards the wall, and finally I used a _reductor curse_ to destroy it."

Harry simply nodded at the extraordinary (at least for now anyway) display of magic.

"With that I covered most of the major compulsion subjects at Howarts – the school where magical children go to learn magic," to which Harry frowned, feeling he's been left out of learning about magic. "Which you will be able to attend when you turn eleven."

With that Harry smiled again, having not missed out on magic lessons.

"At Hogwarts the subject of Transfiguration includes vanishing and conjuration. Charms includes things like the animation of objects, soft wards, and includes many curses and jinxes. Defence Against the Dark Arts is taught to project students from curses, jinxes and dangerous creatures. There is also the subject of Potions but it's not very flashy and therefore doesn't make a very good demonstration despite being one of the most powerful fields of magic. These subjects make up the core curriculum at Hogwarts," stated Nova. "Oh, and there is also astronomy which for some reason is a core subject, though rather useless one at that with its more important lessons being taught in other things. Any questions about this so far?"

"Are there other topics at Hogwarts?" he asked.

"Yes, but we must really press on, you can find out about them later," he said. "We really must get this done tonight."

"Ok," responded Harry.

"Very good," said Nova. "As I said, your parents were murdered by a man calling himself Lord Voldemort on Halloween of 1981. Voldemort was one of the darkest and most powerful wizards to walk the earth in several centuries. The night your parents were murdered he came to kill you."

"So it's my fault there dead," cut in Harry.

"No, Mr Potter, it is not," responded Nova in a strangely gentle manner. "Voldemort is the reason they are dead. He chose to hunt you down, he chose to case the fatal curse at them, and he is the one who gave you that scar. After Voldemort had killed your parents he turned his wand on you and attempted to kill you. For some reason will still don't know the answer to, and probably never will, he – for lack of a better word – died that night."

Harry gave an expression of sadness towards the table before Nova continued with the tale.

"Voldemort, leader of a band of terrorists called the 'Death Eaters', responsible for the deaths of thousands, appeared to be dead. That night, Dumbledore, using his power as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamont – head of our parliament so to speak – sealed your parents will and placed you in the care of your aunt. From there you became a celebrity in the magical world overnight, becoming the 'Boy-Who-Lived', the only person to live once Voldemort decided to kill them. Dumbledore then told the magical world that he had seen to your safety, placing you at the house of some relatives outside of the magical world where he said you would receive the love and attention you needed, away from the politics and manipulations of fame."

"But how can I be famous for that?" he sputtered out. "I don't even remember it, let alone how I survived. And let's not start on the 'love and attention' I received. The Dursleys hate me."

Nova grumbled at that.

"From what I see here in this report that's certainly right," he said. "As for your fame, I suspect it was cultivated by both the publishers of a rather cheesy and lucrative series of children's stories that revolve around a completely fictional account of your childhood and Dumbledore trying to create a beacon of hope for the British magical population."

"Any idea why he left me with my relatives?" asked Harry.

"We have a few ideas, each portraying Dumbledore in either a negligent or bad light," responded Nova. "What we do know for a fact is there are blood powered wards set up around No. 4 Privet Drive. Wards are light magical shields used to protect property from attack, and blood wards are some of the most powerful when used correctly and are powered by love between blood related family members. I image when they were first set up they were very powerful, being powered by the ambient love from your mother and father, but the lack of love and hatred from your aunt and cousin quickly destroyed them. If they had been working properly we would not have been able to discretely enter your house and bring you here tonight, repelling any unauthorized witch or wizard."

Harry buried his head into his hands and sighed as Nova paused his story; it was a lot of information to take in suddenly, made worse by the protections provided by him living there laughable. Harry motioned to continue.

"So, your reason for being there could be negligence. Your mother Lily was one of the nicest people I and many others has met, Dumbledore may have simply assumed that her sister was the same. He may have known your home would have been unpleasant and did not understand the correct use of blood wards thinking simply being in the same home as your aunt and cousin would power them, deciding that alive and unhappy was better than dead and happy. Those are the negligence options," he sighed, sounding like he had aged twenty years. "The next options aren't pleasant; from bad to worse. Dumbledore knew it would be an abusive environment, setting himself up to 'rescue' you from the home so you would see him as a hero and thus he can easily control you. Dumbledore knew it was abusive and placed you there thinking it would make you weak either from abuse, lack of knowledge about the magical world or stunted growth. The worst case scenario is that Dumbledore is trying to get you killed for some reason, as your magical guardian he might be able to gain something from your death."

Harry felt slightly sick, even the 'better' options were unpleasant and showed serious negligence on Dumbledore's part.

"Who is Dumbledore anyway?" asked Harry with a slight sniff.

"One of the most powerful wizards in the world, in terms of both magical power and political influence," responded Nova with a slight growl. "He's famous for defeating the Dark Wizard Gellert Grindlewald in 1945 who commanded the magical side of the Third Reich in the Second World War. He's Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizard – basically the head of the magical United Nations, Chief Wizard of the Wizengamont – head of our parliament, and he's Headmaster of Hogwarts. As I said a lot of power, too much if you ask me."

"Are we able to do anything about it?" asked Harry.

"It would be very difficult," said Nova with a sigh. "Made worse by people think that anyone who opposed Dumbledore is dark. Either way, we need to move on."

"Could I please get some water?" asked Harry.

"Sure," replied Nova who took out his wand, conjured a water jug and two cups then filled the jug with water.

"Now, why Voldemort targeted you," he said as Harry took a drink. "In the magical world there are seers, people who can predict the future to some degree and can sometimes make prophecies. One of the functions of our department is to archive them and research the topic – among other things… Anyhow, before you were born a prophecy was made; Voldemort heard part of the prophecy which basically said someone born at the end of the seventh month would have the power to defeat him. Fearing potential defeat he decided to act while you were a child, defenceless and unarmed, when he tried to kill you his curse rebounded. Most people believe he died that night, we however do not. No body was found at the scene of his supposed death, we have reports of a disembodied wraith hiding in the forest of Albania, we have evidence of the possession and death of small animals in that area over the last nine years and we have an enchanted prophecy sphere, used to store the entire prophecy that hasn't turned black, indicating the prophecy is unfulfilled. Some of those things you may not understand at this point but you will later, as I said a lot to go through."

Harry groaned at the information overload. In the past two hours he had been inundated with so much information, starting with the lies and deceit of his relatives, the existence of magic, the possible manipulations of one of the most powerful wizards to walk the earth and now a supposedly dead manic was still alive and…

"So I'm the only one who can kill him?" asked Harry.

"It looks that way," responded Nova sadly. "Not something that should have been forced onto a child, but there is nothing that can be done about it. And there is more; next is something called the Book of Bonds. Many people think it's a myth, a book that that lists everyone's true love. It's real, and is in this building, but it doesn't list everyone's true love. It instead lists the small percentage of the population who have a soulmate somewhere in the world. Of this small percentage of people listed, an even smaller number ever meet their true love and form a bond, so little that we only get a few worldwide each decade. You however are rather special; your name is in the book; the girl in question is almost the same age as you, lives in the UK and will be going to Hogwarts at nearly the same time. Because of this a soulbond between you would have been inevitable in a few years. This creates a problem for us; we want to train you to fight Voldemort; something Dumbledore should have already begun if he truly cared, but if you formed a soulbond, your bondmate would be a weak point for you, something for the Death Eaters to exploit. So we intend to train both of you in secret."

Harry brain was still processing the information several seconds after Nova finished speaking. For one he still didn't have much idea of what a soulbond was besides a vague image of it involving a girl somehow, though regardless of it, he didn't want her/them harmed, he wanted them protected.

"Can you explain the soulbond a bit more?" asked Harry. "I'm a bit vague on the details besides it involving a girl."

"Yes, I can to the best of my knowledge," replied Nova. "Though you must keep in mind that most people who are bonded don't like to discuss it much as it's very personal and it would seem to be different for everyone. I guess you can look it like a ruler; on one end is the most basic of soulbond where the bondmates can only feel each other's emotions, on the other end of the ruler is a complete soulbond where each individuals mind and soul basically merge into one, essentially becoming one person distributed over two bodies."

"I'm not sure I like the sound of that," replied Harry nervously.

"Don't work about it Mr Potter, the bond only goes as far as the individuals want it too," he explained. "Most bonds seem to reach the mental communications level; were bondmates can talk with their minds, while some go as far as bondmates hearing each other's thoughts unless an individual actively supresses a thought. Very few ever go to the all-out bond; maybe once a century does it happen."

"I'll be thankfully for that," responded Harry with relief. "I don't see how anyone could want the all-out bond myself, being able to talk with your mind though sounds good though."

"I agree, but I need not worry, my name isn't in the book," explained Nova. "Now, to cut to the chase, the Department wishes to employ you and your soulmate in Operations Group, the part of the department which engages in intelligence gathering and combat. The other groups being Field Group who recover magical artefacts and knowledge and Research Group, which conducts research and is our public face, as public as a secret organisation can be. Your mother was a member of Research before she died, doing her Potions and Charms Masteries."

Harry went wide eyed at this revelation.

"Really, mum worked here?" he said.

"Yes, she did, though I never had the pleasure of working with her. Operations and Research don't work together very often; the extent of their contact usually involves requests for new gear. Both Operations and Research interact with Field more regularly.

Anyway, getting off topic again, Operations intends to spend the next twelve months training you and your soulmate in espionage and intelligence gathering skills, unfortunately at your current age you don't have the magical power needed to practice and use the combat orientated spells properly so we'll be waiting a few years for that, though it won't stop you from extensively learning the magical theory. Once you get to Hogwarts you'll be using you skills to gain the information we need to off Voldemort. We're certain Dumbledore knows more about the subject than anyone but he keeps the information close to the chest hampering our ability to do anything about it."

"That sounds agreeable I think," replied Harry.

"Good," replied Nova as he placed a folder on the table, accompanied with a black blood quill. "This is a magical contract. It's the standard contract all Unspeakables sign that stops you disclosing our secrets. The secrets we keep are very big and if they were released may cost not only our own, but the lives of civilians as well, therefore the magical contract will either kill you or squib you – which is to say take away your magic – if you break it. This is a very serious contract."

"I'm not being forced into anything with this, am I?" asked Harry.

"The contract forces you to keep the Department secrets safe, which includes a clause saying that if asked you will allow the department to modify your memories, stopping you from sharing secrets if you somehow find a way to do so. Employment contracts come later."

"Alright, I'll sign," said Harry, grabbing the contract and quill. "Do I need ink or something? I've never used one of these before."

"Normally you would, but that's a blood quill, it uses your blood to guarantee the contract is binding. It means that even if the parchment carrying the contract is destroyed then the contract is still valid. The only way out is for the four Master Unspeakables to free you from it."

Harry skimmed the contract and then signed it before he gasped slightly as the quill took some of his blood.

"I said it was a blood quill," he commented. "Now, we're off to meet your soulmate."

Nova got up from his chair rather jovially and left through the door behind him, as Harry trailed along.

* * *

**So there we are. Longest single chapter I've ever written. It's very wordy, much more than what I prefer but I'm rather limited in what I can do when two kids are having the DoM explained to them**

Please Review


	2. Chapter 2 - First Contact Blush

**Another chapter! Sorry about the wait but I've been feeling like utter shit for the last week. I'm now looking for potential Betas, I can't seem to spot my spelling errors but I know they're there**

* * *

Unspeakable Employment

Chapter Two:

First Contact Blush

"H-H-Harry Potter?" responded Ginny, gobsmacked.

Athena chuckled.

"Yes, _the_ Harry Potter," she said. "But – before you get any ideas heed this; he is not the boy featured in the stories. He's had a hard life with much suffering at the hands of people who should have protected him and shown him care."

"What do you mean?" asked Ginny with sudden concern. "What happened to him?"

Athena sagged slightly and sighed before responding.

"Dumbledore may have told the world that he had place Harry in the care of loving relatives where he could have a normal childhood – in truth it was anything but," Athena paused. "We're not sure if it was malicious or negligent."

Athena went on to explain what Unspeakable Nova had explained to Harry as Ginny frowned and nodded in a somewhat dazed manner, before moving onto the topic of Hogwarts.

"We'll be putting you in the same year at Hogwarts as Harry and your brother, Ronald."

"He's not going to like that," replied Ginny with a frown. "He's going to be insanely jealous over it. How are you going to manage that anyway? I can't see you telling Dumbledore what you're planning."

Athena gave a small smile, she liked this girl, for her age she was very quick.

"I already explained the Book of Bonds, did I not?" to which Ginny nodded. "Yes – well – here in the department there are many more enchanted books that record information. Unfortunately, the secret to their construction has been lost to time. Hogwarts uses on of these books to located prospective students; when a magical child is born their name automatically shows up in the book. This change also shows up in a _Protean _charmed copy of the book located in both the Headmaster's Office and the Deputy-head's Office. It will be a little odd but it has happened before. The most they'll do is expect you to be rather talented, like other early starters who been trained by the Department. They just assume that Hogwarts wanted you there early because you're very talented."

"Will my parent's be able to afford it? They'll need to buy books and everything for me."

"That leads to my next comment," said Athena. "Your father."

"What about him?" she asked with suspicion, noticing that she had not explained it for dramatic effect.

"Your father was an Unspeakable in Operations Group, going by the name of Ghost," she answered, holding up a hand to halt her questions. "We're reactivating him – not yet – but it should provide another source of income for your family. Ghost retired after the war, he got more enjoyment from his tinkering with muggle devices than he did here, we'll give him a part time job. Might be able to find some project in research he might like, we've been looking at doing some work on technomagi for a while now."

"Are you sure?" asked Ginny sceptically. "I really can't see my dad being an unspeakable doing such things.

Athena chuckled again.

"Yes, many people can't. It might be why he did so well," she explained before pausing and considering her choice of words. "People never suspected bumbling Arthur Weasley. Either way, we'll have to bring him back into the fold – he may not look it, but he is very perceptive, he'd pickup on what you're doing so we'll be informing him soon."

At that point Athena reached into one of her pockets and removed a small book, opened it, read for a few seconds and closed it, putting it back into her pocket.

"It would seem Harry's introduction briefing has been finished, let's got meet him," she said before motioning for Ginny to follow and making her way out the door. As she walked down the featureless black corridor she continued. "Remember, drop any assumptions you have about him. He's just someone who wants to be a reasonably normal kid who's had a crappy life. By the looks of it you'll be his first friend. His _Family,_" she spat. "Didn't even tell him about magic and his heritage, he knows little of it, so get used to having to explain a lot."

Ginny nodded, quickly turning red again.

"I'm really not sure about this, Athena. I really don't know what I'm going to say, what I'm going to talk about. I'll probably clam up and not be able to say a word!" said Ginny, clearly panicking, to which Athena laughed. "It's not funny! I'm going to completely mess this up!"

"You'll be fine," she replied. "If you were several years older we'd lock you in a broom closet together for an hour or so, instead we'll setting for locking you in a room together until you get to know each other. You two can't stay embarrassed at each other for hours; you'll have to speak eventually."

Ginny refused to look at Athena, choosing instead to follow her through the maze of corridors

o0o0o0o

"Oh no," exclaimed Harry suddenly as he and Nova sat down in what looked like a small break room. "My Aunt and Uncle are going to kill me when they find me missing!"

"No they won't," responded Nova.

"Why? How?" asked Harry nervously. "They'll notice I'm gone!"

"Magic," he replied before noticing that Harry wasn't finding such a comment particularly funny at this moment. "Don't worry, we'll explain later. Rest assured, they won't notice your disappearance. Now, you might have to start any conversations with this young lady, she's rather star struck and clearly has a crush on you, despite never having met you."

"W-what?"

A knock at the door interrupted them to which Nova got up and opened it. In came a young redheaded girl.

"Have fun," said Nova before slipping out and closing the door.

The Girl just stood there, red faced, occasionally making eye contact with Harry before nervously looking away. After several minutes, Harry broke the silence.

"Y-you want to sit down?" said Harry, to which the girl nodded and sat awkwardly, into the couch opposite, still doing her best to avoid his emerald coloured eyes.

"Um," he said. "I-I'm Harry."

"Uh – Ginevra," she replied awkwardly before more firmly continuing. "_Ginny_ Weasley. I don't like Ginevra very much."

Harry gave a small smile at that.

"Harry Potter," he said.

"Everyone knows who you are," replied Ginny, finally looking at him.

"So I've been told."

From there the discussion quickly devolved into their childhoods. Harry spoke of his relatives. How they treated him, how they ignored him – though he didn't mention the cupboard under the stairs – and told Ginny how he didn't even know his name until primary school when his teacher told him. The story saddened and angered Ginny at the same time and she quickly had to explain that she wasn't angry at him, but rather his Aunt and Uncle.

Ginny talked about her family, how her mother and older brothers treated her like glass, never letting her be responsible for herself because she was always too young or possibly because she was a girl. She did her best to avoid talking about her massive childhood crush on Harry, hoping he didn't know until Harry made a passing reference too it, at which point she admitted it.

"Oh, damn," exclaimed Ginny as she finished telling Harry about her life. "I sound like a spoilt brat! You've had such a horrible life and I'm here complaining about my siblings!"

"Don't worry about it," responded Harry automatically. "I can see how infuriating it must be to be treated like you're incapable of doing anything."

The door opened again and in came Athena and Nova.

"You've been in her for nearly three hours now, have you gotten to know each other yet?" asked Nova to which both Ginny and Harry nodded.

"Good… good," he replied. "We have a few things that need to be done now. Firstly we need to head up to the Hall of Prophecy and grab he prophecy that concerns you two, then we'll have a joint discussion about what will be happening and the training you'll be receiving over the next few years, you'll probably want to look at the Book of Bonds yourself so we'll take you up to the archive room, then we have a compulsory medical – _that_ will be lots of fun," he said sarcastically. "Then we issue you some of your basic gear, and then it's off to Diagon Alley for some wands and finally Gringotts. I think that's all we'll be doing today."

"Not much," commented Athena.

"Right…" said Ginny as she raised an eyebrow.

o0o0o0o

_"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... _

_born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... _

_and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... _

_and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survive ... _

_the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."_

Harry and Ginny sat stunned around the table on which the prophecy sphere laid, facing Athena and Nova.

"Damn," said Ginny simply to which Harry turned and simply blinked before regaining composure.

"You said only the person who heard the prophecy and the people the prophecy is about can pick up the sphere from the shelve, how did you know about it?" asked Harry to the cloaked Unspeakables.

"Technically," replied Athena vaguely before going into detail. "The Keeper of Prophecy listens to every prophecy before it goes on the shelves, enabling him to label it appropriately. He is unable to discuss the prophecy due to his lethal oaths but he is allowed to inform the Master Unspeakables – the heads of each of the three Groups and their superior. From there they simply filled in the blanks and assumed you were the only one who could do it."

"B-But I'm only ten!" exclaimed Harry. "I don't know any magic! How am I supposed to defeat him?"

"With lots of training and this 'power he knows not,'" responded Nova dryly. "I assume the power is your soulmate."

"Love, seamlessly working together, friendship, shared magical power, telepathy, etcetera," added Athena.

Harry and Ginny stared at each other again, this time both blushed furiously.

"I'm going to enjoy teasing them about this," said Athena to Nova before directing back towards Harry and Ginny. "We'll get you a book on the topic; we have some rather detailed accounts of soul bonds in the Department library."

"Back to the topic at hand," said Nova, steering the conversation back to the prophecy. "Harry fits it rather well; parents who escaped from Voldemort three times, born at the end of the seventh month. The 'mark him as an equal' bit is a bit vague, I was originally thinking the scar but I fail to see how it marks you as an equal…"

"It may have been their upbringings," suggested Nova, speaking as if she had forgotten Harry was there. "By attacking Harry he made him an orphan like himself."

Ginny had quickly begun glaring daggers at Athena for her callous remarks.

"Sorry," she said as she noticed. "Continue Nova."

"Yes, well, that may be correct. 'Neither can live while the other survives' I assume means that you, Harry, can't truly live your life while the threat of Voldemort hangs over you."

Ginny gaped slightly at Nova for his easy use of the name Voldemort before regaining her bearings.

"So we're stuck in this together?" she asked.

Athena was about to answer Ginny when Harry spoke.

"You don't have to be here, I can understand it you want to get a long way away from me and save yourself."

"No way, Harry!" she almost screamed. "I'm not going to do that! I have friends and family here! I won't condemn them and leave them! I told you I'm _fed up_ with being treated like a porcelain doll. I need to do this to prove myself."

"You do realise you won't be able to speak about any of this?" said Athena.

"To myself," she replied simply and Harry flushed shamed.

"S-sorry," apologised Harry.

"I shouldn't have lost my temper like that," said Ginny as she buried her head in her hands.

"Well," said Nova. "Now you have that out of your systems, let's move onto a training program for you guys. We covered briefly earlier what you'll be doing but here is the more detailed explanation.

You'll be training using time turners; do you know what they are?"

Harry, with his non-magical upbringing shook his head but Ginny sat thoughtfully for a while.

"I've heard them mentioned in passing, time travel I think?"

Harry perked up at the mention of time travel.

"Yes, time travel, for short periods of time. We use them quite a bit in the Department. We have the smaller three hour time turners we lend out to the ministry who for some reason are insistent on giving them to Hogwarts students so they can take overfilled course schedules, six and twelve hour time turners which are regularly used by Unspeakables in the Department, twenty-four hour turners used for training – which is what you will be getting, along with a few experimental forty-eight and seventy-two hour turners which are incredibly dangerous are to only be used in emergencies."

"You're giving us time machines?" asked Harry awestruck.

Athena and Nova were hesitant to answer that.

"Yes, though you will only be using them as directed," said Nova sternly. "You will only use them for their issued task, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir," coursed Harry and Ginny.

"Good. Now, each night you will _portkey_…" noticing the lost look on Harry's face. "A type of teleportation we use – then crash in the bedroom you will be provided. Get up, do your training for the day, then you will turn back twenty-four hours and portkey back to your beds where you will spend the night again and continue on with your day as normal. Between now and Hogwarts – which is only a year away – you will actually have two years because of the extra day gained every day."

"Five days a week will be spent training and you will have weekends off," added Athena. "I would use the time turners on weekends and use the extra time to get to know each other and for private research."

"What kind of things?" asked Ginny, hoping for a date.

"We'll see," answered Athena. "We can get you disguises so you could spend the day in Diagon Alley or Hogsmead, or you could go into the muggle world, possible a day trip somewhere. We'll be teaching you to apparate so it will really be up to you."

"Apparate?" said Ginny. "I thought you had to be seventeen to do that? Something about not being magically powerful enough when you're younger to do it safely?"

"Apparate?" asked Harry.

"Another form of teleportation," said Nova. "Like portkeys, but different."

"The Ministry likes to tell people that; in reality you could most likely apparate fifty kilometres or so at your age and by the time you go to Hogwarts you'll be doing two or three hundred kilometres. By the time you're seventeen you'll be going across the pond to American pretty easily."

"Again, off topic," said Nova exhaustedly.

"Yes, well, firstly you'll be getting a crash course on Occlumency – the art of protecting your mind from external attacks. You need to be able to keep not only the secret that you work for the Department but also your training and knowledge. You'll be given the basics and will be expected to practice in your free time except for the occasional test to see how your defences are progressing.

We'll then move onto operations procedures; things like using your equipment, codewords, communications. You'll be given lessons on stealth and tracking; learning about the many ways wizards can find other wizards and how to defeat them – we'll squeeze apparition in there. Next will be warding basics; learning what wards do, how to examine wards safely, how to put up some basic soft wards along with taking them down, and you'll start on the theory behind hard or 'rune' wards. Basic healing will be next; just learning how to find broken bones, cuts and scrapes – can't have you being forced to explain why you were somewhere you shouldn't have been and got yourself hurt. You'll get a crash course in useful potions – for some reason they like making you learn utterly useless potions at Hogwarts. Finally you'll learn some basic defensive curses and jinxes and we'll see if you currently have the magical power needed to learn the shield charm.

Interlaced throughout all this will be a required reading list; you'll be expected to have read up on things beforehand and to have a general knowledge in most areas of magic, you'll also be expected to do exercise and get fit – so many lazy wizards these days that can be beaten by simply being more active. Oh, and once the healers clear you you'll be undertaking a few power-boosting rituals, which should mean we'll be able to start you on the more powerful spells you'll need sooner…"

"Rituals?" asked Ginny. "But that's dark magic!"

"Dark magic?" asked Harry recoiling slightly.

"Might I ask, Ginny," said Athena. "How is ritual magic, dark?"

"Well, you have to make a sacrifice, meaning you have to kill something!"

"Partly true," said Athena as Harry and Ginny gasped. "Ritual magic involves sacrifice, but that doesn't mean you have to kill someone. Most rituals ask you to sacrifice blood, generally your own – take the Goblin Ancestry Test for example, which is actually a ritual, though the goblins don't advertise that fact as many witches and wizards would deem it 'dark'. There are true dark rituals though, just like there are true dark potions and true dark spells – generally involving something immoral like murder or forcibly taken blood."

"Any issues, Ginny?" asked Nova.

"Not right now," she responded uneasily.

"I can understand having your lifelong views overturned can be uncomfortable," said Athena. "All we ask is you keep an open mind and think _why_ something is light or dark, rather than blindly believing something is."

"O-ok," she responded.

"Good, any questions?"

Harry and Ginny shook their heads.

"Ah, you'll end up with questions later then and ask them anyway, won't you?" said Nova. "Well, let's get up to the archive room and take a peek at the enchanted Books."

"First though, put on these robes, it's best to keep your identities a secret, even from other members of the Department."

Harry put on the given grey hooded robe, finding that despite it initially appearing to be much too big, that it fit him perfectly, he dismissed it as simply being magic.

o0o0o0o

Harry and Ginny followed the Unspeakables into a darkened room – more like a hall – filled with shelves, each filled with what appeared to be handwritten books of different colours, marked with a name – a name that looked like an unspeakable codename, another name and two dates.

"This is the archive room, filled with the journals of every Unspeakable in this Department," proclaimed Athena. "You'll be expected to keep one too once you go on active duty; though I would suggest starting soon as it will be good practice for the real thing. The colour of the journal indicates its classification level; the black ones being Top Secret – meaning they can only be opened and red by the person who wrote them and those authorized by the Master Unspeakables, I'd suggest you don't try, the curses on them are pretty powerful, the red ones are Restricted – only Senior Unspeakables can read them freely, like Nova and me, they're also cursed but they won't put you in Saint Mungo's like the black ones will. The blue ones are unclassified meaning you as trainees and the Junior Unspeakables can read them, though they can't go out of the Department. The larger name is the author, the smaller name is the operation of project the journal is about and the dates are from when the journal started to when it finished – pretty simple stuff. Let's move to the other end of the room, the books are back there."

Harry and Ginny walked past the tens of thousands of books, finding the back of the hall adorned with pedestals, each with a large and ancient book atop of it. Some of the books were glowing a whitish-blue colour.

"Why are some of them glowing?" asked Harry.

"It's to indicate the book has been updates since it was last inspected," said a male voice from the shadows, causing Harry and Ginny to jump, when they turned and looked the found another unspeakable in a grey hooded robe.

"This, girls and boys, is the Archivist," said Nova. "Just the Archivist, he never has used his assigned codename and gets annoyed if you use it, he prefers his assigned title."

"So, what do all these books do?" asked Ginny. "I know one is supposed to be the Book of Bonds, but what are the rest?"

"Well, young lady, they serve many purposes. For example, that one over there," he said, indicating towards a book adorned with a crest featuring four animals which was glowing. "Is the Hogwarts book; it lists every magical birth in Great Britain, magical copies of the book at Hogwarts are used so acceptance letters can be sent out. It's glowing because a new magical birth has been recorded since I checked it several days ago. Over here," he said, indicating to another book. "Is the Book of Featly; a book of sworn oaths of allegiance, which hasn't updated in over ten years – not since the war. We have plenty of others; the Book of Marriage – which has a copy in the Department of Records upstairs in the Ministry, the Book of Deaths – which also has a copy upstairs, then there is the mystery book – we don't know what it does except list a few more names every few days. Are there any questions?"

"Are we able to look at these at any time?" asked Harry.

"Any member of the Department can," he said. "Though it would be best not to obsess over them, some people do and it does them no good."

"Can I look at the book of Bonds now?" asked Ginny eagerly.

"That might be bordering on obsession," responded the Archivist.

"Just an obsession to see my name," she shot back.

"Very well, I shall take my leave. Simply tap the book saying the name you're looking for and it will open to the page, if the name isn't there it won't open, good luck." He said as he walked off and seemed to fade into the shadows.

"Seeing as you lack wands right now, I think I can do it for you," said Athena before tapping the book. "Ginny Weasley."

The book opened and made a ruffling sound before stopping at an open page. Ginny raced to see her name as Harry followed behind, dropping her hood so she could read the book more clearly.

_Harry James Potter (31__st__ of July, 1980) of James Potter and Lily Potter née Evans – Ginny Molly Weasley (11__th__ of August, 1981) of Arthur Weasley and Molly Weasley née Prewitt._

"So what does it mean?" asked Harry.

"I means that you two will most like ended up soul bonded at some point in the future. You'll be working together in close proximity for long time and you don't have radically different morals of beliefs. When it happens you'll have a few interesting powers, usually it's the ability to speak to each other within your minds, though some only get the ability to feel each other emotions, some share dreams too. There are a few different things that an happen" answered Athena. "I don't think we should tell you how it happens though; you'll figure it out on your own pretty easily in the next few years."

Ginny blushed at this.

"I think Ginny has some ideas," said Nova.

"Can you tell me?" asked Harry.

"It's sorta embarrassing," she replied going to unimaginable depths with her blush. "I'll – I'll tell you later."

"Yes, we don't have much in the way of time for it," sighed Nova. "Lots to do, for example your medical…"

o0o0o0o

"Well, Ginny, besides the usual inadequacy regarding general fitness found in most witches and wizards in the UK, you're a picture of health," stated Athena looking at her notes before sighing. "Harry won't be anywhere near this easy. You just need to do more exercise, which will be part of the training program. Though I'd suggest taking up a sport, even Quidditch would do, though it won't build up much stamina, just muscle strength."

"Ha!" laughed Ginny. "Like that will happen, I'm still the delicate flower of the family, no way will my brothers let me join them and mum would freak."

"Never know until you try, why not prove yourself to them?" suggested Athena. "Either way, I need to get Harry done now."

Ginny moved out from behind the screen, noticing then that is was charmed to also block sound and told Harry he could go it.

"Well, Harry, I may not have mentioned it earlier but I am an accredited Healer – kind've like a doctor," said Athena. "Now, I need you to take of the Unspeakable robe as it's magically enhanced and will interfere with my diagnostic charms. I will also be taking a good look at that scar; there aren't exactly many cases of people surviving the killing curse and everyone in the department is jumping to take a look – kinda odd though, the killing curse isn't supposed to leave a mark."

For the next ten minutes Athena waved her wand over Harry, muttering incantations under her breath, writing a few things on her clipboard and occasionally swearing.

"Sorry, Harry," she said once she'd stopped. "But I want to do a more thorough scan, you'll need to lay down for it so you don't move, movement messes with the diagnostic."

The wand waving, incanting, writing and swearing continued for another few minutes before she stopped again.

"Damn bastard," she said angrily. "I don't know _what_ Dumbledore was thinking putting you with the disgusting animals. Let's start from the top: Evidence of nearly seven fractures on your arms and ribs, one current fracture on your fifth rib on your right hand side, evidence on two breaks on your left arm – one of which was not set properly, stunted growth due to inadequate food – putting you in the tenth percentile for body mass and fifteenth percentile for height. I think we should get your eyes tested too, when did you last get them tested?"

"Um – when I first got my glasses," he replied nervously.

"Which was...?"

"When I was five," he said with a sigh.

"Ugh, you _should_ have had yearly eye tests. Your current prescription is probably doing more harm than good. We'll have to venture into the muggle world at a later date to get that I think, we'll have to do it muggle seeing as everyone will know who you are if we went to the eye healers in Diagon Alley and that would get back to Dumbles"

Harry giggled a bit at her new name for Dumbledore before she motioned him to lie down again.

"Now I want to take a look at this scar. It's rather odd. Does it ever do anything?"

"It tingles occasionally, maybe once a year or so."

Athena made a distracted 'hmm' sound before raising her want again and casting spells at the scar.

"That's strange… that doesn't make any sense… I think…" Athena stepped back and frowned under her robe. "I need to check the healer texts and get a specialist I think, the readings make no sense. Either way, I think we can come back to that, there are a few more pressing issues."

Athena turned around and went outside the curtain before coming back.

"Just needed to ask someone to race up to research and get something we're going to need," she said. "When I said Dumbledore was a bastard I meant it. There are four things wrong with your magical core. Two are easy to fix, one I have a theory on but will require me to borrow a ward master and take peek at your home and the last doesn't make sense so it might have something to do with your scar."

Harry nodded dumbly, none of this making much sense to him.

"The first two are magical bindings, one binds your magic to about half the other is a transfiguration binding – suggesting you might be a metamorph."

"Metamorph?" asked Harry.

"Metamorphmagus," she replied. "Natural shapeshifters, though there was no evidence of it as a child..."

"Huh?"

"Oh – well, I know a metamorph, they're very rare – she was changing the colour of her hair and everything within an hour of being born. I don't recall that you ever did. You might be a minor metamorph; that could mean anything from changing the colour of your hair to changing the length and changing your eyes. It won't come anywhere near as naturally as a true metamorph but it could be useful," she finished. "Has anything like that ever happened to you? Bindings can't completely block magic out, just supress it."

"Yea, just once," replied Harry. "My aunt cut off all my hair, leaving just my fringe and it regrew overnight."

"Good, good…"

At that moment another Unspeakable came through the curtain – presumably Nova – and handed Athena a small black velvet bag.

"Cheers," she said as he hurried away. "Now, once we remove this rather illegal binding…"

"Illegal?" asked Harry.

"Yes, illegal, the bindings were never approved by the ministry, meaning it was illegal. Usually the only time you can bind a child's magic is when their magic is dangerous or when it keeps causing problems for the Statute of Secrecy, nearly always muggleborns. It also must be applied by a healer and a healer would not have done it without the proper paperwork so I'm guessing Dumbledore did it.

So, when the binding comes off you'll be having a bit of trouble with your magic for a few weeks, usually lots of accidental magic and such, but we can't have that as it would draw attention to what we're doing. So you'll wear these bracelets, they're based on the cuffs used by magical Law Enforcement to supress the magic on captured suspects, but we use them for ward breaking as it improves your finesse, a must for discreet ward breaking. They're adjustable, see?" she said as she rotated the inner ring on the silver bracelet with marked graduations from zero to a hundred.

"So what do I do?" asked Harry.

"Nothing, just a few spells."

Athena resumed casting spells for several minutes before Harry felt a strange tingling sensation all over his body.

"Is it normal for my skin to tingle after that?"

"Yea, it is. Just your body adjusting to more magical power, the feeling will disappear in a few weeks," she responded. "I left the transfiguration bind on for now; we can't have you accidently changing your hair or eyes in the middle of school or something, it – again – would cause us a lot of issues. We'll revisit the topic in a few weeks once your magic has calmed down."

Harry put on the cuffs and immediately had the strange feeling of having his entire body but his hands past the cuffs tingle.

"Is there a setting I should set these too?" he asked.

"Set them at fifty percent for now, we'll reduce the amount over the next few weeks," she replied. "Now the next one; it seems to be some sort of magical siphon. I think it's linked to the wards around your residence, possibly powering them, but it would be incredibly illegal, not that Dumbles would care. Basically it uses your magical core to power the wards, putting a strain on your body, made worse by the lack of food and poor diet."

"Can it be removed?"

"It can, but it may need to be removed at the source, which is to say you would have to destroy or modify the wards, something that would most likely alert Dumbledore. He's bound to have some sort of monitoring system," she sighed. "He really has screwed you over. I think we may have to leave that one on until Hogwarts at least, we might be able to 'accidently' destroy the wards after your first year at Hogwarts. One good thing though is it doesn't draw any energy at the moment, I suspect you have to be at your house for it to power the wards."

"What about the last one?" Harry asked.

"Again, I need to do more research and get a specialist in," she explained. "It acts like a magical siphon but it doesn't act like any I've ever seen nor does it register as such, another thing to come back to in a few days. Now, I think it's time to organise your kit, time to go upstairs to Research Group and meet Croaker."

* * *

**I had intended to at least get to Diagon Alley with this chapter but it ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be.**

**The only issue I'm having with this is I have trouble writing dumbed down characters, their ten and I'm writing them as much older than that - oh well.**

**The soul bond won't happen for a while, it ****_might_**** happen late first year, remembering they are a year older in cannon due to all the time travel but we'll see. Second year sounds right though, we'll see how it works out, I might just start it on a whim.**

**Can anyone guess who Athena is? Nova is a 'mentioned in passing' character so he's mostly OC**

**Please review, follow and favourite etcetera.**


	3. Chapter 3 - Gear Up!

**Chapter Three! Sorry it took so long but I tried to get three other stories off the ground and failed, again. **

**With that, would anyone like to read my take on Reptilia28's Grim Reaper challenge? I'm working FemHarry in a HP/HG/GW/LL soul bonded foursome/coven (hey, I'm a guy; lesbians are good fun to write and I honestly have no idea how to write a heterosexual relationship from the point of view of a woman). I'm hoping that will bring new life to a now somewhat stale challenge. It pretty much involves Dumbles obliviating and compulsing FemHarry (I like the name Rose or maybe Alyx; we'll see) every time she figures out she's gay and him trying to get her with Ron as opposed to the usual 'Ginny is a love potioning and gold digging slut' trope found in most Reptilia's Grim Reaper challenge entries. Any feedback on the concept is welcome and I've got most of the first chapter written.**

**Now, onto the story.**

* * *

**Unspeakable Employment**

**Chapter Two**

**Gear Up!**

"Welcome to Research Group!" said Athena as she opened one of the many doors in the strange circular spinning room with the simple command 'Research Group'.

"This is the main entrance room to the department," said Nova, answering the unasked question. "You ask for what room you want and if you're authorized to be there the required door will open."

Harry and Ginny followed the Unspeakables through the door and into a workshop of some sort, inside were workbenches littered with strange objects. Ginny, despite her magical upbringing couldn't name a quarter of the objects in the room.

"Let's find Croaker."

They navigated through the maze of tables and into another room where there was an Unspeakable with his hood down, sitting at a table with what looked like a small telescope attached to his glasses, examining some small bronze and gold object with many gears in it. Looking up, he noticed the two hooded Unspeakables and two children.

"Ah, I was wondering when you would finally make an appearance," the man who was presumably Croaker said. "I haven't been able to get on with my usual projects as I've been waiting for you two to make a show with our new recruits. The usual kit, I take it?"

"Yes, Croaker, the usual," replied Nova before turning to Harry and Ginny. "Croaker is one of the few publically known Unspeakables. Nearly all are found in Research Group as it's mostly staffed by full time Unspeakables making it hard for them to slip away and work without anyone noticing. The Wizarding World is a small place."

"Nice to meet you, sir," chimed Harry and Ginny.

"Yes, yes, let's get this over with, follow me through here," he said impatiently.

They followed Croaker through another set of doors and into a room packed with shelves. Each shelf stocked multiples of the same items almost like a magical supermarket.

"Alright, I'll call out an item on your list as we go past it. First item will be your trunks, these are Department Trunks," he said, pointing to what looked like a normal, if slightly upper market, trunk. "They're designed to look like a normal trunk such as what a student or vacationer would have, but in reality they're multi-compartment trunks, the particularly model you'll be getting have five separate compartments, four of them are hidden and con only be found if you open it with a secret latch and say the password; comes with lightening charms as well so it will never get too heavy. Dump everything we give you in it for now and you can sort through it in your own time, not mine."

Harry and Ginny silently took one each before Croaker started shooting off items on the list and jabbing his finger.

"Two sets of Department robes, pair of black dragonhide boots, one lightweight dragonhide vest, standard surveillance kit – including omnioculars, charmed listening bugs, dictation pens and camera, one ward breaking kit – including mage sight glasses, power control bracelets, and ward picks, one set of rune-carving tools, two regular sized wand holsters, two compact wand holsters, one expanded messenger bag, a complete set of Department instruction manuals – Occlumency, departmental policies, small unit tactics, battlefield spells, field craft, wards and wardbreaking, combat healing, etcetera, a few journals for writing things in, a communications diary pair, and one Unspeakable charm bracelet with complete charm set," he said finally as Harry and Ginny

He next led them back through the maze of rooms, through the entrance hall, asked for the 'Time Room' and led them into a room light with a soft Golden glow and bizarre objects. Harry stood mesmerized at a strange glass dome which contained an egg that grew into a chicken then regressed back into an egg in the space of twenty seconds.

"Let me make this clear, what I'm about to give I expect back," he said firmly and carefully, snapping Harry out of it. "I couldn't give a damn about what happen to most of the kit I issue you, it's expected to be somewhat expendable, but if you lose what I'm about to give you there will be Hell to pay. Time-Turners are rare and very valuable magical objects, we already have enough trouble getting the brats upstairs to return the three hour turners we give them too much about with. These are twenty-four hour turners, a dozen times more valuable and difficult to build. On top of that they are _very_ powerful magical objects; it's no small feat to bend time. If you damage one while you're using it there is a real possibility it could explode and the magical backlash could kill you."

Harry and Ginny silently nodded once to the grumpy Unspeakable before he wandered over to a desk and tapped his knuckle to a certain section of the wall behind it. The wall appeared to melt revealing an archaic looking safe which Croaker began opening by turning the dial several time in different directions and tapping his knuckles on the front of it in various patters. Finally the safe made a 'click' noise and Croaker opened it.

Out of the safe came two curious objects. They each looked like a hourglass suspended in the middle of an intricately detailed rune-covered gold disk attached to a very fine gold chain.

"Put it around your neck and don't fiddle with it until you've had instruction in its use," said Croaker. "Alright, I'm finished with you; I can get back to my work now. Some of the other researchers might be around looking for test guineapigs for new items."

With that he stalked off.

"Is he always like that?" asked Ginny.

"Pretty much," replied Athena.

"Yea, don't worry though; he's just unhappy he's been rostered on as quartermaster. He prefers to be able to do his research at his own pace without interruptions; he keeps petitioning the higher ups to recruit a full time quartermaster so he doesn't get dragged off his projects every few years for a month to fill the role," added Nova. "Come on, let's head back to Operations Group, get you guys a room and dump all your stuff there so we can get some wands."

o0o0o0o

"Alright, let's have a rundown of your gear," said Athena as they made their way into a small room with two single beds, a locker each, a shared desk and another door. "This is the room you'll be sharing during your training days," to which Ginny blushed – sharing a room with _the _Harry Potter! "What you'll do is this; wake up early in the morning, turn back a full twenty-four hours, portkey here, you'll then spend the day training, spend the few off hours you have doing whatever entertains you, sleep here, then portkey back into rooms just after you left and have a normal day. That's how you'll spend forty-eight hours in twenty-four. Any questions?"

Harry raised his hand.

"What about weekends? Do we train on them too?"

"Some weekends you'll have training exercises, other you will be free to do your own thing," responded Athena.

"Apparate up and down the country together, pursue some topic that interests you in the Department's very well stocked library, start some sort of project," suggested Nova. "Make good use of it."

Harry and Ginny just nodded.

"Alright," said Nova. "Equipment! Let's see; one of you dumps everything on one of the beds so we can take a good look."

Harry volunteered, unknowingly claiming one of the beds and emptying the objects onto it.

"First I think is the robes, they're pretty special," said Athena. "First thing, wear them at all times with the hood up when you could be identified as an Unspeakable and are in the presence of anyone who can't know your identity. As you can see they have obscuring charms on the hoods so you can keep your identity secret, when you have your wands you can 'key' people in so they can identify you. Only do so to people who already know your identity or need to know your identity. Usually that means your direct superiors, your handlers –which are us, and your teammates. Understood?"

Harry and Ginny responded with an affirmative.

"So, the features," she continued. "At the moment they are grey, but you can change them to different colours by tapping them with your wand and saying the colour desired – blood red being a good one as we sometimes use it to pass off as aurors, which won't really work for you as you currently don't look the part."

"Next, it can transfigure itself into a predetermined set of clothes. What you do is put the new set of clothes on top of the robes when transformed and tap them with your wand while saying 'combine'; then, when you need to blend in, you can transfigure your robes into the clothes you combined them with at a tap of your wand by saying 'transform'. Unfortunately they don't change colour, or, at least not easily I think."

"Next we have more identity concealing charms; first ones obscure your voice and the second make it hard for people to describe you. In this case they won't be able to think that you two are incredibly short – it just won't click in their minds, nor will they be able to think what colour your skin is if they see your hands, nor will they remember your build."

"Finally are the inbuilt _Disillusionment_ Charms. Nowhere near as good as a proper invisibility cloak but they will hide you well enough in the dark or if you keep really still."

"What about sizes? Why need to shrink them?" asked Ginny.

"Oh yea, they're self-sizing," added, Athena. "It's pretty good charm work, nothing like the cast charms they use in most shops. These charms are rune based so thefabric itself will wear out before the charms fade."

Harry didn't understand half of what Athena had said so he decided to stay quiet for now and just test it out himself later.

"Next are your dragonhide boots, they're pretty damn comfortable if I say so myself," said Nova, holding Harry's pair up. "Best not wear them around your families, they'll probably notice them and demand an explanation, as they're not very cheap."

"Next are the dragonhide vests," he continued, holding them up. "These are the lightweight versions that should stop the more minor curses – we have heavyweight ones issued to combat teams and those in high risk environments – you don't need them right now, wear the lightweight ones though under your robes when out of the department."

"Next is the surveillance kit, the ward breaking kit and the rune carving tools – you'll be taught to use them soon so I won't go into details," he said, glossing over the rolled up leather kits. "Though you, Harry, may want to go see the boys and girls in research group for some charms to be added to your own glasses, that will save time switching back and forth with the pair in your kit and you'll be able to see properly using them."

"Hold off on that, Harry until we've gotten you a new prescription," added Athena to which Harry nodded.

"We have wand holsters – you'll have four wands by the end of the day…"

"– Four?" asked Ginny. "Why so many?"

"One will be your 'public' wand – meaning it has the Ministry tracking charms on it which you will present if ever stoped by an auror or other authority figure and they demand to see your wand, the next will be your wand for everything else which no Ministry charms, then we have two concealable backup wands – one will be for carrying as a backup, the other for stashing in a safe place in case you lose your primary and backup," answered Nova.

"Good enough?" asked Athena to which they nodded.

"Then you have a small library – I'd suggest designating a compartment in your trunk for the purpose," he said, waving his hand in the direction of a trunk. "Saves having to look through all your compartments for that book you just happen to need. You'll be getting more books once you finish the ones you have and more onto more topics."

"Then we have the journals which you know about and communications diary which you do not. Basically the diary is _protean_ charmed; you write in one and the words appear in the other. You'll use it to receive orders at Hogwarts. The one you'll take to Hogwarts will be blood bound to you so no one else can open it."

"These here," he said, picking up the strange bronze coloured chainmail-like bracelet. "Are charmed bracelets; the bracelets themselves have _notice-me-not_ charms on them so most people won't notice them on you and then you add tags to them. Each tag gives you a certain property; notice-me-not over your whole body is one, others conceal magical signatures, some make you immune to magical repelling wards and some make you immune to the less powerful mind magics like compulsion charms."

"You'll be getting more kit as we go along, it was thought you've probably already been overwhelmed with information and we shouldn't overwhelm you anymore," she said. "Now, if there is nothing else, I think you should be going off with Nova to get some wands. I was going to go with you but some things have come up and I need to go see the dark magic and maybe the ward specialists in Research Group to figure out some of the strange readings we got for your medical, Harry."

Harry frowned at the attention.

o0o0o0o

Athena had seen had seen Harry, Ginny and Nova off – concealed in their robes – at the entrance room, before turning around deciding which problem to tackle first as the room spun before stopping them speaking aloud.

"Runic Magic!"

A door at her seven o'clock clicked open and she went through, finding a room filled with finely engraved objects. Moving through she found herself in another room filled with stone blocks that were cut like multifaceted crystals, each engraved with larger and sturdier lines of runes, some glowing with a soft blue light.

"Snotra?" called out Athena. "You in here? I need some help with something."

Suddenly Athena heard a sharp crack noise, spinning around to face a door to another lab which opened. Standing in the doorway was a rather unhappy looking Unspeakable with her hood down.

"Andi!" she almost shouted. "You know damn well not to jump up one me when I'm working! You're lucky that ward stone I was working on wasn't fully charged and just cracked instead of exploded!"

"I-I-I…" she stammered out before sighing. "You shouldn't be working on something that dangerous then where the mere entrance of someone could kill you! And I hardly jumped on you; I wasn't even in the same room."

"What do you want?" asked Snotra before she had to concede to being wrong.

"New recruit seems to have some sort of ward tied to him that is siphoning off his magic, need to find the best was to disconnect him without the maker of the wards being none-the-wiser. Actually, we'll probably need a full report on the nature of the wards, could you organise a team for that?" asked Athena as she rummaged around in her pockets for some parchment and a muggle biro so she could copy down the address. "Sooner rather than later would be nice."

"Blood wards? You've got my attention, I'll have to see that," responded Snotra, taking the slip of parchment. "I can only think of one place where they're used and that's Nurmengard. I can't see the department recruiting Grindlewald. Not often you get to see them"

"Be careful, it's a muggle area."

o0o0o0o

Harry gazed around the Alley with awe, thankful that no one took a second glance at him in his cloak as he stopped and stared at the sights. Nova told him he can gawk later and they continued towards _Ollivanders Fine Wands_. They entered the shop as Nova pulled out his wand, transfiguring the glass windows opaque, locked the door and put up half a dozen different privacy charms.

"You can drop OPSEC here," he said. "Ollivander has sworn oaths not to disclose his Unspeakable clients; he needs to know anyway as he'll be 'selling' one of your wands to you again before you go to Hogwarts."

"OPSEC?" asked Harry and Ginny at almost the same time.

"Operational Security," explained Nova. "The things you'll learn to do to protect the identities of yourself and those around you, along with protecting the Department and it's research."

"Ah, you are some rather short Unspeakables, aren't you?" said a voice out of the shadows, which was replaced by an aging pale man with large saucer like pale eyes. "Before you ask, the charms on your cloaks work on _most,_ but not all people. I can't however see through the obscuring charms on your faces."

Nova sighed impatiently.

"Might as well get it over with, kids. He'll spend all day guessing who you are if you don't show him and he'll need to know what you look like anyway for when you're brought to Diagon Alley to buy school stuff. You can drop the cloaks."

Harry and Ginny dropped their hoods to which Ollivander gave a small gasp.

"Mr Potter I see and I assume you're the youngest Weasley; Ginevra, isn't it?" asked Ollivander.

"Just Ginny, thanks," she replied.

"Very well," said Ollivander. "Seems the Department is recruiting younger and younger…"

"Ordinarily, no, Mr Ollivander, we haven't taken recruits this young in over fifty years," replied Nova before turning to Harry and Ginny. "Nearly all of our Unspeakables are graduates, though we do have a few people that haven't graduated yet getting some preliminary training along with a few informants in schools across the globe looking for future Unspeakables."

Harry and Ginny nodded and nervously awaited their wands.

"Now, who wants to go first?" asked Ollivander.

Harry and Ginny looked to Nova.

"Ladies first?" he suggested with a shrug.

"Ms Weasley then!" said Ollivander with a cheer. "Which is your wand arm?

"My right."

"Yes, yes, arm up please," he said before throwing a tape measure in her direction. The tape measure promptly opened up and started taking measurements; everything from her height to the length of her feet to her bust which make Ginny turn a bright red and avoid Harry's eye. In the meantime, Mr Ollivander started collecting boxes of what were presumably wands from the many shelves that littered his shop.

"Try this, Ms Weasley," said Mr Ollivander as he handed Ginny a wand by the handle at which point the measuring tape crumpled to the floor. Ginny gave it a wave before Mr Ollivander snatched it out of her hands.

"No, no, that won't do."

The 'pick up a wand and have Mr Ollivander snatch it out of her hand' routine continued over a dozen times before Mr Ollivander stopped and clapped as both Harry and Ginny suddenly felt the rush of magic in the air.

"Bravo, bravo; it would seem we found a match," he said. "12 ½ inches, maple, a core made from dragon heartstring; thankfully I still have some left from the same dragon so I can make a duplicate of that wand – though it won't be exactly the same it will still work quite well for you – I'll then make a pair of compact wands out of it too – they certainly won't be as good as the full length wand but a compact or 'backup' wand as the Aurors are fond of calling them is a tool of last resort."

Ginny frowned slightly at the extra wands not being as perfect but was happy she would be getting not just one wand of her own, but four.

"Now, Mr Potter, if you may, which is your wand arm?" asked Mr Ollivander.

"My right, sir," responded Harry.

The tape measure crumpled on the floor sprung to life and started taking measurements (avoiding a bust measurement to Harry's thanks) while Mr Ollivander collected more boxes of wands.

"Let's try this wand first, Mr Potter."

Harry finding his wand proceeded in a similar fashion to Ginny's, except Harry was sure he went through four or five dozen wands before one finally accepted him.

"Ah, how curious, very curious indeed," muttered Mr Ollivander before answering the unasked question and explaining. "Holly and Phoenix feather, 11 inches. The Phoenix that gave up a feather to make your wand Mr Potter only gave one more, and that feather was used to make the wand that gave you that scar. You-Know-Who did great things – great, but terrible – with that wand, I hope to see great things from you."

Harry gulped at the ever increasing burden on his shoulders.

"Now, the more pressing issue," continued Mr Ollivander. "Your three extra wands."

"Can we ask for some more feathers from the phoenix that gave them?" asked Harry.

"We could, but I can't see the Department being particularly happy with that. Albus Dumbledore would be rather suspicious if we asked for some more feathers from his phoenix, Fawkes."

"I could see how that could be an issue," said Harry, controlling his anger at the illustrious Headmaster.

"Yes, we will have to try and find another wand here; failing that we could make one from scratch using components selected by you. There are issues with that method through, it doesn't account for how each component interacts with each other and may not produce workable wand at all."

Mr Ollivander grabbed more boxes of the shelves and proceeded to hand each wand in turn to Harry. Eventually he felt like he had gone through every wand in the shop as his stomach growled.

"Hmm, it seems we'll be going the custom wand route," commented Mr Ollivander. "Follow me please."

Harry, Ginny and Nova followed Mr Ollivander through to the back of the shop and up a flight of stairs to the floor above.

"This is my workshop," he said. "Normally a customer would see it every few decades, usually when they are facing the problem we face now. I usually consider it a personal failure to not find a match for a customer but in this case I think I won't, seeing as I already found one for you."

Mr Ollivander motioned them to follow and proceeded to shelves stocked with jars and boxes; some filled with silvery coloured hairs, dried strips of some sort of flesh, orange feathers that at first glance appeared to be on fire and eventually more unusual things including what looked like a very large pickled forked tongue.

"Ah, I see you spotted my basilisk tongue," said Mr Ollivander. "That have been in my family for quite a few hundred years yet no one has ever needed part of it for a wand core."

"Giant snake whose glare can kill," said Nova, noticing Harry's confusion.

"Oh."

"I have a few other things too," Mr Ollivander continued. "Sphinx hair, griffin feather, slithers of erumpent horn, to name a few. Though usually I stick with phoenix feather, unicorn hair and dragon heartstring though occasionally I have the urge to make a more unusual wand, hence the unusual core materials."

Mr Ollivander began removing things from the shelves and arranging them in rows on any free surface, looking to get the widest variety of magical materials to use for a core as Harry, Ginny and Nova examined the unusual materials.

"Now Mr Potter," he said. "I want you to find the core material the gives you the most magical attraction. Unfortunately this is very imprecise and some people use their other senses and become biased towards a certain material. Try to avoid doing that."

Harry simply nodded and headed towards the table; searching and trying to replicate that feeling he got when he first held that wand that was now his.

"Sir, didn't you say you've never made a wand with a core from a basilisk?" asked Harry.

"That is correct, Mr Potter, I have never and I do believe none of my ancestors have either," replied Mr Ollivander. "Are you getting the most reaction to it?"

"I am, sir. Or at least I think I am."

Mr Ollivander chuckled slightly.

"Yes, we can never be too sure about it Mr Potter," commented Mr Ollivander. "And it is made even more difficult by the intricacy and mystery of wand lore."

"Does it mean anything, Mr Ollivander?" asked Ginny, breaking her silence.

"You mean is it going to be a dark wand?" he replied. "Coming from a dark creature?"

"Uh, yea, that's kinda what I'm asking," answered Ginny awkwardly.

"Some people might say yes," said Mr Ollivander to Harry's disappointment. "But I would say to look at He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's wand. He is a being – as I would not describe him as human – that had done unimaginably terrible things, yet he has a wand core from the purest creature on the face of this planet. The one thing I can say though is this will be a powerful wand, must like how Mr Potter's phoenix core wand is incredibly powerful," he finished causing Harry to relax.

"If I was into guesswork I would guess that the fact Mr Potter will carry wands containing both a core from the purest of creatures and a core from one of the darkest shows he has little bias," said Mr Ollivander gravely leaving Harry and Ginny thinking as to what he meant. "I hope instead you will simply do what is right."

"I will, sir," replied Harry.

"I will hope so, Mr Potter," said Mr Ollivander with sudden happiness. "Now, to your choice of wood; most likely it will be identical to the wood of your first wand, but it may be different with the unusual core."

Harry once again attempted to feel the magic in the materials being selected but ended up having trouble.

"I'm having a bit of trouble, Mr Ollivander," said Harry timidly. "I can sort've _feel _the magic, but it's very faint and I can't see much difference between them."

"That can be expected; while the wood is magical, it is nowhere near as magically powerful as the cores. You're lucky to get any reaction at all, some people feel nothing."

"Why don't you try, Ginny?" suggested Harry.

"Sure, why not."

Taking less than thirty seconds to decide she picked out three pieces of wood from the offered dozens.

"These three give me a stronger feeling than the rest," said Ginny.

"It's quite possible that Ms Weasley distinct sensitivity to the forces of magic, on the other hand it's quite possible that Mr Potter is suitable for all of those woods. You can never be sure," explained Mr Ollivander.

"What wood are you going to use for my other wands, sir?" asked Harry.

"I will be using Holly, Mr Potter, it's the most suitable we can find based on the information," he answered before turning eagerly to his workbench and tools. "Now, get out of here, I have work to do. Oh, and Nova, please return my front window to the way you found it," he said distractedly.

o0o0o0o

After showing Harry and Ginny how to load their wand holsters with their first wands and an explanation that their extra wands will be ready when Mr Ollivander sends the department a letter they donned their hoods and headed towards Gringotts.

Harry decided not to stare at the strange creatures – despite them being unable to see him stare under the cloak – as he walked into the bank and they headed to the teller with the shortest queue. The teller efficiently, if somewhat coarsely, worked through the customers and in no time they were at the front.

"Master Goblin, I arranged a meeting with Gemclaw for this afternoon. Please tell him Unspeakable Nova and company have arrived," said Nova in a formal tone.

The teller eyed Harry and Ginny carefully, noticing their rather short stature for a pair of humans before speaking.

"Bogrod! Take these three to see Gemclaw!"

The group followed the assigned goblin and wormed their way through the maze of corridors and offices before reaching an office with the door marked 'Gemclaw'.

Entering, the goblin spoke.

"Wait here," said Bogrod forcefully. "Gemclaw will be here in a few moments for your meeting."

With that, Bogrod closed the door with a snap, which was cue for Harry too gaze around at the various pieces of weaponry and armour adorning the wall as they each took seats opposite the desk.

"Are they always that abrupt?" asked Ginny cautiously.

"They like to think of themselves as efficient and generally go by the motto 'time is money'," answered Nova. "It also doesn't help that they generally distrust humans."

"Why's that?" asked Harry.

"Because we treat them like crap; both now and in the past," he replied. "Here's your first lesson; when you are here in your role as an Unspeakable, be polite. You dick around with them and you tarnish everyone else in the Department. We've very carefully crafted our relationship with them over the years and get very good service for it. If you damage it you slow everything down every time the Department needs something from them."

"Will do," answered Ginny.

"And outside of being an Unspeakable?" asked Harry nervously.

"Doesn't matter to me," he replied before offering advice. "But if you want good service too; be polite. The first few visits you do so they will probably just sneer at you but eventually they'll warm up. What usually happens is some witch of wizards sees another witch or wizard being polite to the goblins and are getting better service. So they try to butter them up by being polite too and all they get is a sneer or rudeness back so they go back to being rude to the goblins and show what the goblins believe to be their true colours. Persistence is key."

"Makes sense I guess," said Harry nodding slowly as a tall and heavily built goblin with white hair came through the door.

"I must say, Unspeakable, that unless your Department is recruiting very short people nowadays, that you appear to be seated next to children," said the goblin who was presumably Gemclaw as he surveyed Harry and Ginny.

"You can see through the enchantments?" asked Ginny.

"We wouldn't be very good at running a bank if we weren't resistant to those simple mind magics," he replied before leaning back in his leather chair. "The enchantments on your cloaks, though ingenious, are not exactly designed with the thought of clouding goblin minds. It was designed for humans. Now, Unspeakable, what is your business here today?"

"Need vaults set of for each of them, no names, with a blood key for entry," he said before directing his attention to Harry and Ginny. "Later, when you have or have access to your personal vaults you'll be able to arrange for the automatic transfer of funds from your Department vault to your personal vault through a complex laundering arrangement, protecting your identity. For now though, treat your department as your personal vault for whatever kids these days spend their money on."

"How much are you going to be paying us?" asked Ginny curiously.

"What we pay all our trainees, I think it's about fifty odd galleons a fortnight – mind you, I haven't been a trainee in nearly fifteen years – plus your usual danger bonuses during missions, and more bonuses if you're going on long term or long distance deployment – which you may get," replied Nova.

"Fifty galleons?" exclaimed Ginny.

"Is that a lot?" asked Harry.

"About a thousand pounds a fortnight," said Gemclaw impatiently. "Now you've had your chat, can we please move down to the vaults so you can be keyed in to the doors?"

o0o0o0o

Nova, despite the high speed and twisting turns of the goblin cart, managed to explain what a 'blood key' was.

"Most witches and wizards simply use keys to gain access to their vaults, but that requires you to provide an identity in the event you lose your key," he explained over the noise of the carts grinding on the tracks and the rush of wind. "Blood keys however just need blood. Every time you need to get in you provide a drop of blood. Most witches and wizards don't like that despite it being significantly more secure and instead they choose to use it only on the large family vaults."

"How is it more secure?" asked Harry loud enough to hear over the wind.

"The goblins will let anyone into a key entry vault provided they have the key."

"What are family vaults?" asked Ginny.

"Most of the wealthy pureblood families have family vaults that they put everything in. They then have the goblins move small amounts of it into trust vaults for each family member to use."

"And then they don't need to provide a tiny bit of blood each time they want money, right?" added Harry.

"Pretty much."

* * *

**Not sure how people thought Athena was McGonagall. I'm sure I said Andromeda was a Healer and since when has the Tabby cat been one? I tried to make her a bit like Tonks in her eccentricities but a little bit more reserved; I dunno how well that went though. Poppy as an Unspeakable? maybe, but I personally couldn't see her being so right under Dumbledore's nose. As the Hogwarts nurse I doubt she can get out enough to undertake jobs for the Department often enough. He would notice and she would be neglecting her duty.**

**Please review, favourite, follow, etcetera.**

**I'd like some feedback on my take on magical society. Just it's quirks, expectations, social niceties etcetera **


End file.
